I’ve been in a blogging drought for the past few weeks not because I lacked anything to blog about, Lord knows that our Congress and Executive branch have been a clown circus of blogging material, but more because I was just tired and needed some mental down time.

But I just now got an email from Hank at Devil Dog Brew that just sent me into a realm of pissed off that I don’t visit often but Jesus-on-a-pogo-stick I am there RIGHT FUCKNG NOW!

His email directed me to this article where a supervisor at Kindred Hospital Mansfield was directed to take down the American flag she put up in her office because another supervisor found it offensive.

McLucas said the supervisor who complained has been in the United States for 14 years and is formerly from Africa. McLucas said that supervisor took down the flag herself.

“The flag and the pole had been placed on the floor,” McLucas said. But McLucas also said hospital higher-ups had told her some patients’ families and visitors had also complained.

“I was told it wouldn’t matter if it was only one person,” she said. “It would have to come down.”

Now, to be totally fair, Hank did receive this email response from Rhonda Williams who is also a Kindred Hospital Administrator

May 27, 2009
Kindred Hospital Mansfield has a great deal of appreciation for the service that many of our employees and their families have given to the country. We honor our veterans and active military through a variety of benefits and service programs. This was an isolated incident between two employees that we are working to resolve amicably. Both employees have family members who have served in the military. The disagreement was over the size of the flag and not what it symbolized. We have invited the employee to put the flag back up. We share their love of country and we appreciate the service of their family members as well as all members of the armed forces.
Rhonda Williams
Kindred Hospital Administrator

I’m going to call bullshit on this. How can someone be offended by the size of a flag? And if they were offended, tough shit! This is the flag of our country and no one should ever be FORCED to take it down. Bet the fucking terrorists find it offensive too.

I will say it AGAIN, AGAIN and AGAIN: THERE IS NOTHING IN THE CONSTITUTION THAT PROTECTS YOU FROM BEING OFFENDED. If the supervisor from Africa is so offended by the American flag, then maybe he should get the hell out of my country. I would never dream of being in some other country, living there and working, and then tell someone “I find your displaying of your flag offensive.” Fuck off! To be honest I really don’t care if the dispute really was over the size of the flag or the fact that it was displayed in the first place, it is the flag our our country and no one should be told they have to take it down.

I am sick and tired of the whole “I’m offended” bullshit. So what! Grow a pair of balls and a thicker skin. I could give a shit less about you little feelings. Everyone talks about their rights “I can say what I want, I have freedom of speech” until that person is offended by someone else’s freedom of speech and then “Oh, I was offended, you shouldn’t say that.” Fuck off!

I don’t CARE that you’re offended. You don’t like it, then LEAVE! What kind of a fucking country are we becoming that displaying our OWN FLAG is becoming prohibited? What kind of limp dicked assholes take this kind of complaint seriously?

And then there is this part “we have invited the employee to put the flag back up.” Which is the polite way of saying “We stepped on our own peckers and now are trying to backpedal from the whole thing.”

Good God I am glad that my grandfather, who fought in WWII and lost four brothers to that war, isn’t here to see this crap. We military member have lost brothers, friends, and comrades to defend our Constitution and keep the citizens of this country safe so that those same citizens can do stupid shit like this.

Too lazy to do a real post right now. School’s out and I am just crashing for the week, there’s laundry to be done, litter boxes to clean and dishes to do so enjoy the video (it’s always makes the wife giggle) and maybe next week I’ll be energetic enough to actually post some stuff.

Well, the semester ended last week and so to celebrate surviving we went out shooting with our friend who we will call ‘Andy’.

Andy is a certified firearms instructor and he brought along his three favorite pistols; A Sig 226 9mm, A Sig 239 .357 and a Beretta M9 9mm with a conversion so it can shoot .22s. Since the range was indoors we couldn’t take Bruce with us, but we are planning on going to another range in a few weeks where we can put some rounds through him as well and get him broken in on a few silhouette targets.

Anyhoo, we got out there late in the afternoon so we didn’t have that long of a shooting time, but it was OK with us, the wife wanted to learn more about shooting and I just wanted to knock some of the rust off of my skills. In the Navy I had qualified as sharpshooter with pistol and rifle but since that was about 17 years ago and it had been ten years since I had last picked up a firearm I was a little apprehensive about it. I wasn’t afraid that I was going to shoot my foot off or anything, it was more that kind of apprehension that you get when you haven’t done something in a really long time and you don’t want to look stupid. You know, the old ego kicking in.

There were two lanes open, but the target retrieval motor on one of the lanes was broken so the three of us ended up on one lane The first one that we shot was the .357 and I must say that while I like Sig, this gun made me love them. The trigger pull was nice and smooth, the sights were bright and the recoil wasn’t as much as you would expect from a .357, especially one this small. I was able to get back on target very quickly and put five down range in no time at all. The wife (who has small hands) was easily able to control it as well and put five of her own in center mass as you can see here, this one was at ten feet.

When you pull the trigger on the 239 though it makes a very nice BOOM followed by a shock wave you could feel and almost see. We even had a guy who was two lanes down come over to ask what we were shooting, the lust in his eyes over it was obvious. It was even more fun because that was while the wife was shooting and the surprise in the guys eye’s to see a small lady making such a big boom was amusing.

We shared this target and that one that dropped out of the five ring – not mine. I’m just saying.

Once we did that one we decided to try the 9mm 226 Sig and I have decided as soon as the money is available I will be getting one of my very own. First time shooting it and while I did finger the trigger a little too much I still did a pretty nice job of keeping them in center mass and after firing off ten in quick succession I decided to try triple taps and see if I could still do them. You can see the results for yourself.

I walked them down the head a little bit, but overall I’m pretty happy with how I did. This target at least isn’t going to threaten anyone ever again by putting it’s hands on it’s hips.

After that it was round after round through the .22. I didn’t get a shot of that one, but suffice it to say that another target was filled full of holes through the heart by the wife and I. I must say that considering she had only shot once or twice before now both Andy and I were very impressed at her skill. She listened to everything he had to tell her, handled the gun safely and with confidence, and kept her shots nice and tight. Little practice and time and she’ll be out shooting all of us I think.

We are planning on getting out and going again next weekend to a different range that allows shotguns so I’ll let you all know how that goes.